COMPLEMENTARY NOTES

Note # 1

ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE AND THE ORIGINS OF
THE OLD TESTAMENT


To the greater number of Christian Churches, the Bible is the supreme authority, the sixty-six books composing the Old and New Testaments being the "Word of God."

    We inquisitive children of the twentieth century ask ourselves: Why are these exactly sixty-six? Why neither more nor less?

    The books of the Old Testament were selected, from among many others, by unknown Jewish rabbis. These books are of very unequal value.

    The same may be said of the New Testament, composed according to a rule unknown to the Christians of the first century. The Apocalypse was written in the year 68 after Christ. The frourth Gospel only appeared at the end of the first century (some say in the year 140), and both books bear the name of St. John; but they are animated by a very different spirit. The first is the work of a Christian Jew; the other was written by a Christian of the philosophical school of Alexandria, who not only had broken with the Jewish dogma, but had set to work to combat it.

    We can easily understand that the Protestant Feformers, starting from the principle that the Bible constitutes the "Word of God," should have encountered many insurmountable difficulties. It is principally they who have lent to the Bible that absolute authority which has led to so many abuses; but we must not judge them only by the results of the theology which they built up. The needs of the times constrained them to oppose to the authority of the Roman Church, to the abuse of indulgences, to the worship of the saints, to the dead works of a religion where vain practices had replaced living faith, the sovereigntyof God and the authority of His word, as expressed in the Bible.

    In spite of the inequality of the elements which compose this work, its great importance and its occasionally high inspiragion cannot be gainsaid. A rapid examination will however show us that it cannot have the origin claimed for it.

    Genesis - If we read attentively the first chapters of Genesis, we shall see that they contain two distinct accounts of the Creation. Chapters I and II, verses 1-3, contain one version; but in chapter II, verse 4 another narration is given; these two accounts reveal to us the thoughts of two different authors. One, speaking of God, calls Him "Elohim," the other uses the name of Jehovah. (Javé, according to the modern orientalists) name peculiar to the God of Israel. This difference is constantly found ghroughout the whole book, to such an extent that exegists have come to distinguish these two authors apart, and designate them by the names of author Elohite and author Jehovite.

    These twho authors have their particular and distinct views, the application of which sometimes leads to grave consequences. For example, the author of Genesis I and II verse 3 has endeavoured to give a divine sanction to the Sabbath by alleging that God rested the seventh day. The author of the following chapter explains the problem of human suffering. It comes, he says, from sin, and sin results from the fall of Adam. He starts a terrible chain of dogmatic consequences, which were to weigh heavily on the human mind and arrest its development. Renan proclaimed this author to be the greatest of philosophers. It is a curious apinion! We cannot deny that his views undoubtedly influenced St Paul, St Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Pascal; but into whaat a fearful labyrinth they have led human reason!

    Deuteronomy. Let us consider this, the fifth book of the Old Testament. It is said, chap. I. 1, that Moses was its author. This is an early example of those pious frauds which consist in publishing a work under the name of a venerated author to give it greater authority. We are informed of the true origin of this book by the narrative in 2 Kings XXII. 8-10. It was found in the temple during the reign of Josiah, one of the last kings of Judah, five centuries after Moses, at a time when the dynasty of Judah was alaready beginning to decline. The true author had evidently placed it in the temple, that it might be discovered and presented to the king, a pious man, who took the book very seriously, believed Moses to be its author, and used his authority to apply to reforms therein recommended. The Jews were at that time plunged in idolatry; the precepts of Moses were so utterly forgotten that the author of Deuteronomy, a well-intentioned reformer, having attempted to bring them once more to mind, provoked a veritable terror among the people and his book was accepted as a new revelation.

    It may be remarked that in Deuteronomy XXVIII., all the seductive promises and fearful menaces by which the author endeavours to restore the worship of Jehovah related exclusively to this earthly life. The author seems to have no idea of immortality.

    It is also thus with the Pentateuch as a whole, attributed to Moses. Nowhere does the great Jewish law-giver mention the soul as an entity surviving the body. According to him, the life of man, an ephemeral creature, was confined to the restricted circle of the earth, with no perspective open towards heaven, no hope and no future.

    The other books of the Bible speak of the future of man with the same doubt, the same feeling of despairing sadness.

    Solomon says, Eccles. III. 19: "That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above the beast; for all is vanity."

    Is this the "Word of God"? Can we suppose that He would allow His chosen people to remain in ignorance of the destiny of the soul and of the future life, when this essential principle of all spiritualistic doctrine had long been familiar to India, Egypt, Greece, and Gaul.

    The Bible affirms the most absolute monotheism. There is no question of the Trinity. "Javé" reigns alone in the heavens, solitary and jealous. The angels, of whom no mention is made in Genesis, only appear from time to time as messengers of the Eternal. There is no place for the souls of men in that empty and gloomy heaven. From a moral pint of view, God is presented in the Bible under multiple and contradictory aspects. He is said to be the best of fathers; and He is shown to be without pity for His guilty children. He is called all-powerful; infinite goodness and sovereign justice are attributed to Him; and He is brought down to the level of human passions, when He is represented as terrible, partial, implacable. He is the Creator of all things, He has pre-knowledge, and nevertheless He repents Him of His work. "And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart, and the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them" (Gen. VI. 6,7). Only Noah and his family found grace before the Lord. What becomes, after this narrative, of the divine power and forethought? What becomes of His wisdom and goodness after the words of Ezekiel XX. 25, which made the Lord say: "Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live"!

    We cannot pass in review here all the works which compose the Old Testament. It would require an extensive study; tedious and fatiguing to the reader. From a general examination, it results that the Bible cannot be considered as the "Word of Good," or as a supernatural revelation.

    It is a collection of historical and legendary narratives, the teachings of which are sometimes vulgar, bordering on obscenity, but at other times of an elevated character; narratives useful to preserve and containing many grand things. The Bible is the work of men, a witness to their faith, their aspirations, their knowledge, as well as to their superstitions and their errors. The prophets have introduced into it the lofty words with which they were inspired, seers have told of the visions of the invisible realities which had appeared to them; writers introduced into it descriptions of scenes of social life and the customs of the epoch.

    It was to give to these widely varied teachings more weight and authority that they were presented as emanating from the divine power which rules the worlds.

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Note # 2

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS

   
    The Old Testament is the sacred book of one people, the Hebrew people, The Gospels are the sacred book of humanity. The essential truths contained in them are connected with the traditions of all peoples and all ages, but many inferior elements have been added to these truths.

    From this point of view, the Gospels may be compared to a precious vase, in which, under the dust and ashes which it contains, may be found pearls and diamonds. The gathering together of these jewels constitutes the pure Christian doctrine.

    As to their veritable origin, adminiting that the Canonical Gospels are the work of the authors whose names they bear, it is to be remarked that two of them, Mark and Luke, have only transcribed that which was told them by the disciples. The other two, Mathew and John, lived with Jesus and received His teachings. But their Gospels were not written until forty sixty years after the death of the Master.

    The following passage of Matt. XXIII. 35, proves that this work is posterior to the taking of Jerusalem (in the year 70). Jesus addresses this vehement apostrophe to the Pharisees: "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."

    According to all historians, and in particular, Flavius Josephus, ¹ this murder took place in the year 67, that is, thirty-four years after the death of Jesus.

    If the mention of a fact of which he could have had no knowledge is attributed to Christ; what may not have been dared on other points?

    The Gospels do not agree on the most importante facts attributed to Christ. Thus as regards the Ascension, Matthew and John, the only companions of Jesus who wrote of His life, do not mention it. Mark places it at Jerusalem (Mark XVI. 14, 19) and Luke declares that it took place at Bethany (Luke XXIV. 50, 51). Again it is clear that the last chapter of the Gospel of John is not by the same author as the rest of the book, which evidently finishes at the 31st verse of chapter XX., and the next verse shows the change.

    Would John have dared to speak of himself as the "disciple whom Jesus loved"? Could he have stated that the whole world could not contain the books which might be written about the acts and sayings of Jesus? (John XXI. 25). If we admit, as we must, that a whole chapter has been added to this Gospel, we are forced to the conclusion that there may quite possible have been numerous interpolations throughout.

    We have spoken of the great number of apocryphal Gospels. Fabricius counts thirty-six. These Gospels, although despised to-day, were yet not without value in the eyes of the Church, since it is from one of them, said to be by Nicodemus, that she takes her belief in the descent of Jesus into hell, a belief imposed on all Christians by decree of the Council of Nicea, but which is not mentioned in any of the canonical Gospels.

    To resume, according to A. Sabatier, dean of the faculty of Protestant theology in Paris, ² the original manuscripts of the Gospels have disappeared without leaving any certain traces in history. They were probably destroyed at the time of the general proscription of all Christian books by the Emperor Dioclesian (Imperial edict of 303). The sacred writings which escaped destruction are therefore only copies.

    Originally, these documents were devoid of punctuation, but, very soon they were divided up for the greater facility of public reading, and these divisions are often arbitrary and subject to variation. The present division appeared for the first time in the edition of 1551.

    In spite of the most minute research, the most ancient texts, scientifically established, date only from the fourth and fifth centuries. Before that all is conjecture, and open to discussion.

    Origen complained bitterly of the state of the manuscripts of his day. Irenius states that whole peoples believed in Jesus without the intermediary of paper and ink. Nothing was written af first, for the return of Christ was expected.

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Note # 3

ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPELS


    An attentive examination of the text shows us that during the discussions and disputes which agitated the Christian world in the early centuries, the facts were often distorted, and the real meaning of the Gospels falsified, to provide required arguments. Celse, in the second century, accused the Christians of constantly manipulating the Gospels and of erasing to-day what had been inserted yesterday.

    Many of the statements seem to be imaginary and added afterwards. For instance, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth at Bethlehem, the massacre of the Innocents, of which there is no mention in history, the flight into Egypt, and the double genealogy, contradictory in so many points, of Mathew and Luke.

    How also are we to believe in the temptation of Jesus, which the Church admits into the very book in which she finds the proofs of His Divinity? Satan takes Jesus onto a mountain and offers Him the world if He will submit Himself to him. If Jesus is God, could Satan be ignorant of it, and, if he knew Him to be divine, how could he hope to influence Him?

     The resurrection of Lazarus, the greatest of Jesus' miracles, is mentioned only in the fourth Gospel, more than sixty years after the death of Christ, although all the other cures performed by Him, even to the least important, are related in the first three Gospels.

    With the fourth Gospel and Justin Martyr, the Christian belief accomplished the evolution which consists in substituting the idea of a God become Man, for that of a man become divine.

    After the proclamatin of the divinity of Christ in the fourth century, and the introduction into the ecclesiastic system of the dogma of the Trinity in the seventh century, several pages of the New Testament were modified, so as to make them confirm the new doctrines.

    "We have seen," said Leblois, ³ "in the National Library, in that of St Geneviève, in that of the monastery of St Gall, manuscripts where the dogma of the Trinity has only been added in the margin. In later transcriptions it was inserted in the text, where it is still to be found."

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Note # 4

ON THE HIDDEN MEANING OF THE GOSPELS


    Among the Fathers of the Church, a number have asserted that the Gospels contain a hidden meaning. Origin says: "The Scriptures are of little use to those who take them as they are written. The reason of many evils is that men attach themselves to their carnal and exterior part."

    "Let us search them for the Spirit and the substantial fruits of the Word, which are hidden and mysterious."

    Again he says: "Things have been recorded as being historical which never took place, and which were materially impossible, and also others which were possible, but which did not happen."

    St Hilarius declares several times that it is necessary, for the understanding of the Gospels, to admit in them a hidden meaning, a spiritual interpretation.

    St Augustine is of the same opinion: "In the works and miracles ou our Lord there are hidden mysteries which may not be carelessly interpreted nor taken literally, without leadin us into error and the committing of grievous faults."

    St Jerome, in his epistle to Paulin, writes in the same vein: "Beware, my son, of what road thou followest in the Holy Scriptures. All that we read in the Blessed Word is luminous and shines also outwardly, but the inner part is ever the sweetest. He who would eat the kernel must break the shell."

    All these hidden meanings were possessed by the early Church, but she hid them carefully, and they have gradually become lost.

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Note # 5

ON REINCARNATION


    In his works, the Jewish historian Josephus declares his faith in reincarnation; he states that it is the belief of the Pharisees.

    This idea was not new to the Jewish people; which explains the questions several times put to Jesus by his disciples.

    Regarding the man born blind, Christ replies to one of these interrogations: "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

    The disciples believed that one could sin before birth, that is to say, in a previous existence. Jesus shared their belief, for, having come to teach the truth. He would not have failed to correct this opinion, had it been a false one. Ont the contrary, He answers by explaining to them the case which puzzled them.

    The learned Benedictine, Dom Calmet, expresses himself thus in his "Commentary" on this passage of the Scriptures: "A number of the Jewish doctors believed that the souls of Adam, of Abraham, and of Phineas, successively animated different men of their nation. It is therefore not at all strange that the disciples should have reasoned as they did touching the infirmity of the blind man, and that they should have supposed that it was he, by some secret sin, committed before his birth, who had drawn down on himself this disaster."

    Concerning the interview of Jesus with Nicodemus, a clergyman of the Dutch Church writes us as follows: "It is clear that reincarnation is the true birth to a better life. It is a voluntary acto of the spirit, and not the exclusive result of the bodily intercourse of parents. It is the result of the double resolution of the soul to take a material body and to become a better man, a true child of God."

    John denies openly the part of the parents in the birth of the soul, when he says: "Which were born, not of blood nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John I. 13).

    That is the real thought of Jesus, who, in majestic language, says to His disciples: "Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven."

    All these obscure points become luminous, when they are looked at from a spiritualistic point of view.

    In this interview with Nicodemus, the latter does not understand, when Christ speaks to him of reincarnation, how can take place. His narrow-mindedness makes it difficult for Jesus to explain it to him. It was a doctrine known to the men of that day, and here was a doctor in Israel who did not understand it. Thence the exclamation of Christ: "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?"

    Of all the Fathers of the Church, Origen is the one who has affirmed in the clearest terms, and in many passages of his "Principles" (Book I.), reincarnation or the re-birth of souls.

    The Abbé Bérault-Bercastel thus records his opinion: "According to this doctor of the Church, the inequality of human beings is but the effect of their own actions, for all souls were created simple, free and innocent through their very ignorance, and all, consequently, absolutely equal. The greater number fell into sin, and, in proportion to their falts, they were shut up in bodies more or less gross, expressly created to make for them prisons. Thence, the divers treatments meted out to the human family. But, however great the fall, it never brings the return of the guilty spirit to the state of the brute; it only obliges it to begin  anew fresh existences, either here below, or in other worlds, until, tired of suffering, it submits itself to the law of progress and improves. All spirits are liable to pass from good to bad, and from bad to good. The pains decreed by God are but medicinal, and the very demons themselves will one day cease from being the enemies of good and the objects of the regours of the Eternal." (Histoire de l'Eglise," by l'Abbé Bérault-Bercastel.) 4

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Note # 6

ON THE INTERCOURSE OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS WITH THE SPIRITS


    In the philosophical Greek language, the word demons (daimon) is synonymous with genius or spirit. Such was the demon of Socrates. There was a distinction made between the good and bad demons; Plato even calls God  the "all-powerful demon." Christianity has adopted the same terms, but has changed their meaning. The good demons are now called angels, and the bad have become demons, without the adjective. The word spirit (pneuma), has remained the expression used for designating an intelligence deprived of its earthly body.

    St Jerome translates the word "pneuma" by "Spirits," admitting with the evangelists that there are good and bad spirits. The idea of deifying the spirit only appeared in the third century. It was only after the adoption of the Vulgate that the word "Sanctus" was constantly coupled with the word "spiritus," and this combination in most cases only succeeded in rendering the sense more obscure and sometimes quite unintelligible.

    The translators of the canonical books have contributed to pervert their original meaning. Here is one example among many. In Luke XI. 10, Greek text, we find: "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." V. 13, "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give a good spirit to them that ask Him?"

    The translators give it "the Holy Spirit," which is agains sense. In the Vulgate, translated from Greek into Latin, there is "Spiritum bonum," literally "good spirit." The Vulgate does not mention the Holy Spirit. The primitive Greek text is even more explicit, and indeed, it could not have been otherwise, since the Holy  Spirit, as a third person of the Trinity, was only thought of at the end of the second century.

    On the subject of the relations of the early Christians with the spirits, the following passages of Scripture may arrest our attention. In Acts XXI. the prophet Agabus tells Paul that a spirit warns him not to go up to Jerusalem. The English and French translations have it the "Holy Spirit." 1 Cor. XIV. 30, 31, gives the order to be observed inthe meetings of the faithful: "If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be comforted."

    It appears from this instruction that to prophesy is but to transmit a teaching, it is the role of the speaking or incorporated medium.

    In Acts XXIII. 6, Paul, addressing an assembly, says: "Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." And there arose a great discussion and some of the Pharisees strove, saying: "We find no evil in this man; but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight agains God." Acts XVI. 16, 17 - Paul had been warned in a dream to pass into Macedonia with Timothy: "As we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying: "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show us the way of salvation."

    The expression "spirit of Python" signified, in the language of the times, a bad spirit. It was used by the orthodox Jews, who admitted only the official prophesying, recognised and guaranteed by priestly authority when its teachings coincided with their own; on the other hand, they condemned popular prophesying, which was practised especially by women who drew a profit from it, as in our day by certain paid mediums. But this qualification of "spirit of Python" was often arbitrary.  We find the proof of it in the fact tht the seeress or pythoness of Endor, who served as a medium for Saul to communicate with the spirit of Samuel, possessed, according to the Biblical expression, a "spirit of Python." But it is not possible to confound the spirit of Samuel with spirits of an inferior order. The scene as described in the Bible is imposing and grand and presents all the characteristics of a high manifestation.
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    In the case of the young servant girl, quoted above by St Paul, if we admit that bad spirits can follow the Apostles, and preach the Gospel, it becomes difficulto to distinguish the source of inspiration.

    This was the principal endeavour in all the assemblies of the faithful. We find the confirmation of this in a celebrated document, of which we here give an analysis: "La Didachè," a little treatise discovered in 1873 in the library of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, at Constantinople, and probably composed in Egypt between the years 120 and 160, sheds a new light on the organisation of the Christian Church at the beginning of the second century, on its worship and its faith. It consists of several parts, the first, essentially moral, embraces six chapters intended for the instruction of the catechumenus. What strikes one especially in this catechism is the complete absence of all dogmatic element. The second part treats of the rites of worship, that is to say, of baptism, prayer, and the communion; the third part contains a liturgy and a discipline. It recommends the observation of the day of rest; it furnishes the rules for distinguishing the true prophets, (read mediums) from the false, it indicates the conditions required for a bishop or deacon, and concludes with a chapter of the final things, and the "Parousia" or return of Christ.
   
    This work presents a very different picture of the primitive Church from that which we generally imagine to ourselves. It has been translated into French, and published by Paul Sabatier, Doctor of Theology at Strasbourg, published by Fischbacker, Paris, 1885.

    In the same way that the pharisees accused certain prophets of being animated by the "spirit of Python," so, among the Catholic priests of our day, there are some who attribute the spiritualistic manifestations to demons or infernal spirits.

    "They are demons," says the Archbishop of Toulouse, in his Lenten mandte, 1875, "since it is forbidden to consult  the dead. God refuses them the faculty of satisfying our vain curiosity."

    But He did not refuse to allow Samuel, in the case mentioned above, to satisfy the curiosity of Saul at Endor.

    All the Catholic priests do not, however, share this opinion. Among the clergy there are keen minds which have understood the importance of the spiritualistic manifestations and their true character.

    P
ère Lacordaire wrote on June 20th, 1853 to Madame Svetchine, in reference to table-turning: "Perhaps, by this manifestation God wishes to proportion the development of the spiritual forces to the material, so that man should not forget, in the presence of the marvels of mechanics, that there are two worlds included one in the other, the world of bodies and the world of spirits." Père P. Le Brun, of the Oratoire, in his work entitled "Histoire des pratiques superstitieuses," vol. VI. 358, expresses himself thus: "The souls who enjoy eternal beatitude, absorbed in the contemplation of the glory of God, yet interest themselves in what concerns the men whose miseries they themselves have felt; and, as they have attained to the happiness of the angels, all sacred writers attribute to them the privilege of being able, under an aerial body, to render themselves visible to their brethren on earth, to comfort them and teach them the divine will."

    The Abb
é Marouseau writes to Allan Kardec: "Show man that he is immortal. Nothing can better help you in this noble work than the manifestations of the spirits from beyond the tomb. Only in this way can you come to the aid of religion and fight side by side with her the fight of God."

    The Abb
é Lecana, in his history of Satan, speaks thus of the moral role of spiritualism: "By following the maxims of the 'Book of the Spirits,' of Allan Kardec, we should become saints upon earth."

    Thus, on one side in the Catholic Church, spiritualism is condemned as contrary to the laws of God and the Church, and on the other side it is considered an auxiliary ofreligion and is spoken of as "fighting the fight of God." In the presence of such contradictions, great must be the perplexities of believers.

    It is the same in the Protestant Churches. Many clergymen, and not the least eminent, accept spiritualism without hesitation. We may read in this connection the opinion of Pasteur  B
énézech, of Montauban, expressed in his "Causeries" in 1892.

    In London, the Rev. H. R. Haweis, preaching on the "doctrine of the dead," at Marylebone Church, invited his hearers to come into the vestry after his sermons to examine photographs of spirits.

    More recently in St James' Church, the same orator preached on the "tendency of modern spiritualism," and concluded by saying that the "facts of spiritualism are in perfect accord with the general mechanism and the theories of Christian religion." (See the review "Light" of London, 7th August 1897. See also "Christianity and Spiritualism," a pamphlet containing a lecture delivered by Mr Haweis before the London Spiritualistic Society, published by "Light.")
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    A number of American clergymen entertain the same ideas.

    The "Neue Spiritualistische Blatter" of March 16th, 1893, publishes a translation of an article by Mr Savage, pastor of the Unitarian Church of Boston, in which that thinker and talented writer, well known in the United States, relates his researches into psychic matters, and tells of the way in which he was brought to believe in spiritualistic facts in the following article:-
    "In regard to these questions, I thought, as did once the honest folk of Jerusalem, of Corinth, and of Rome about Christianity; it seemed to me to be a pestilential superstition. Once, fortified by my invincible ignorance, I preached a sermon under four heads against these ideas, after which it surprised me to find among my friends enlightened people who still persisted in believing therein.
    Seventy years ago, a member of my church lost his father. Shortly afterwards, he came to tell me that he had gone with a friend to see a medium who had told him some most convincing things, and he begged for my advice on the subject. I perceived at last that it was not proper for me to give an opinion on a subject of which I was totally ignorant, my whole knowledge thereof consisting in a stock of prejudices. The rapid spread of spiritualism among the educated classes of Boston showed me that it was needful that I should seriously examine the phenomena in question, since it was possible, nay, probable, that other members of my congregation would come to me about them. I therefore said to myself: be they true or false, in either case I must study these things throughly to be able to advise intelligently. I perceived that it was a shame to me that I had no opinion about the statemens in the Old and New Testaments relating to apparitinons and demoniacal influences. Why should I be proud of my ignorance of things important to the members of my church? I saw that it was my duty to study these phenomena conscientiously, until I had arrived at an intelligent opinion of their value. These were the principal motives which led me to these long and minute researches.
    In these researches, I followed the scientific method, which seems to me the only one leading to sure knowledge. I always sought to convince myself by minute observation, whether or no I was dealing with a real fact, and I paid no attention to the manifestations which too, place in the dark, or when I could not fully assure myself of their reality.
    Without for a moment implying that manifestations obtained under such circumstances are necessarily due to fraud, I nevertheless put them aside. Moreover, I throughly learned the tricks of conjurers, by which means I soon saw that imitations of the phenomena produced under other circumstances had no relation to the facts. The greater number of the manifestations which I was obliged to recognise as real and which effectually convinced me, took place in the presence of a few reliable friends, and without a professional medium.
    Once sure of a fact, I always called in the aid of every possible theory to explain it without having recourse to the theory of the spirits. I say, the theory of the spirits, and not a supernatural explanation, for I believe that there is nothing supernatural. If there are spirits, our inability to see them does not render them any more supernatural than the atom is supernatural to science, although equally invisible.
    Well, I discovered facts which prove that the 'I,' the ego, does not die, and that after what we call death it is able, under certain conditions, to enter into communication with us."

    The Rev. J. Page Hopps, in a meeting of clergymen at Manchester, affirmed his belief in the reality of the "communion of the spirits in the visible and invisible," and proposed the founding of a Church which should communicate "the messages from on high." ("Aurore," July 1893.)

    In an article in the Pontefract Express, of January 1898, the Rev. C. Ware, a minister of the Methodist Church, speaks at length of the "Acts of Apostles." He advises Christians to make a careful study of this book, on account of the innumerable and marvellous facts related therein, which are none other than spiritualistic phenomena. He observes that at the outset of the stablishment of Christianity, two classes of workers were constantly in contact, the incarnate and the disembodied spirits. Mr Ware mentions the two men dressed in white who, when Jesus had disappeared from the sight of His disciples, came and conversed with them and instructed them; the gathering in the upper chamber, with the phenomena of lights and noises, the influences controlling those present and causing them to discourse int strange tongues, etc.; the marvellous cures performed by the early Christians, the deliverance from prison of Peter and John, the shaking of the house in which a prayer-meeting was being held, the sending of Philip to the eunuch and his disappearance by ocult means; the warning of Cornelius by a spirit, and the vision of Petter on that subject; the marvellous manifestations which turned Paul from an assassin and persecutor into a most zealous apostle; the ecstasies and remarkable gifs which proved he was the instrument of invisible powers; in short, all the extraordinary phenomena which accompanied the preaching of the disciples, after the tongues of fire had descended on their heads, and the ardent fervour aroused in the early Christians by these phenomena, which are all reproduced today in spiritualistic s
éances.

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Note # 7

  SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA IN THE BIBLE

    Much stress has been laid on the prohibitions of Moses contained in Deuteronomy, Exodus and Leviticus. Certain theologians of the present day have quoted these prohibitions in condemning the study and practice of spiritualism. But what Moses condemned were the magicians, the soothsayers, the augurs, in a word, all that constitute magic, and all this is also condemned by modern spiritualism.

    The prohibitions of Moses could not apply to the intercourse between men and the spirits of the dead, since Moses knew nothing, or rather could say nothing, about survival. They had but one object, to preserve the Hebrews from the idolatrous practices of the neighboring peoples. Perhaps they were also directed against the abuse and evil use of evocations, for, in spite of Moses' orders, spiritualistic phenomena are frequently recorded in the Bible. The roll of the seers, the oracles, the sorceresses, of the inspired of all descriptions, is everywhere consider able. Do we not see Daniel, for instance, causing, by his prayers, mediumistic occurrences? (Daniel IX. 21). The book which bears his name is nevertheless held to be inspired.

    How could the interdictions of Moses serve as an argument to the believers of today, when, during the first three centuries of our era, the Christians saw no objection to their intercourse with the invisible world.

    St John says: "Believe not every spirit; but try the spirits, whether they are of God" ( I John IV. 1). This is not a prohibition, but quite the contrary.

    The Hebrews, believing as they did that the soul of man vanishes away at death, or that it returns to the "scheol," never to leave it more (Job X. 21, 22), and that no revelation from beyond the tomb is possible, did not hesitate to attribute to God Himself all the manifestations. Consequently God intervenes at every moment in the Bible, and often in circumstances highly unworthy of Him.

    It was the custom to consult seers on all the occurrences of daily life, for lost objects, for alliances, for enterprises of all sorts. We read in 1 Samuel IX. 9: "Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake: Come and let us go to the seer, for he that is now called a prophet, was beforetime called a seer."

    Was it then God who inspired all the answers of the seers? But the prophets and the seers were fallible and were often mistaken. How then can we reconcile these errors with the infallibility of God?

    By some singular mood of contradiction possessed by those who denied the manifestations of the spirits, they often evoked the dead, thus admitting the facts after denying the cause which produced them. It is thus that Saul evoked the spirit of Samuel through the witch of Ender (1 Samuel XXIII. 6).

    These cases show us, that, in spite of their ignorance of the soul and the future life, in spite of the prohibitions of Moses, certain Hebrews believed in survival and the possibility of communicating with the dead. It is thus easy to understand the inequality of inspiration among the prophets and their frequent errors due to the inspiration of more or less enlightened spirits. How is it that the Jewish authors never understood this? There is evidently no other explanation of the facts.

    God being infinite wisdom, it is impossible to attribute to Him a doctrine which does not even inform man on such an essential point as his destiny beyond the tomb; whereas the spirits being but the souls of disembodied men, more or less pure and enlightened, possessed only a limited knowledge. Their inspiration given to the prophets, must necessarily show itself sometimes by powerful and elevated, and sometimes by vulgar and erroneous teachings.

    Often, in their revelations, they were obliged to take into account the state of the times and the backward condition of the people to whom they were addressed.

    Little by little, the beliefs of the Jews became enlarged and widened by contact with other peoples, more advanced in civilization.

    The idea of survival and successive existences of the soul spread from Egypt into India and reached Judea. The Sadducees accused the Pharisees of having borrowed from the Orientals their belief in multiplicity of lives of the soul. This fact is attested by the historian Josephus (Antiq. Jud. I. XVIII). The Essenes and the Therapeuts professed the same doctrine. Perhaps there existed even at that time, in Judea, as was proved to exist later, behind the official doctrine, a secret and more complete doctrine, reserved for chosen intellects.7

    However that may be, let us return to the spiritualistic facts mentioned in the Bible, which establish the relations of the Hebrews with the spirits of the dead, in conditions analogous to those we observe today.

    As in our day, their mediums, whom they called prophets, were recognized as such on account of a special faculty (Numbers XII. 6) sometimes latent and requiring a special development, such as is still in use in spiritualistic groups; as in the case of Joshua, whom Moses "instructed" by the laying on of hands (Numbers XXVII. 15-23). This often occurs in the history of the Apostles.

    As in the case of our mediums, the lucidity of the prophets is intermittent. "The most enlightened prophets," says Le Maistre de Sacy in his commentary on 1 Kings IV. 3, "have not always the faculty of prophecy" (see also Isa. XXIX. 10).

    As in our day, the mediumistic connection was sometimes slow in establishing itself; Jeremiah waited ten days for an answer to his supplication (Jer. XLII. 7).

    Others traded on their pretended lucidity to make money. We read in Ezequiel XIII. 1 and following: "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel... Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing... They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: "and the Lord hath not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word" (see also Micah III. 11 and Jer. V. 31).

    In old Jewish days they often mad use of music to facilitate mediumship. Elisha asked for a minstrel, to enable him to prophesy (2 Kings III. 15); and darkness was regarded as propitious for this class of phenomena.

    "The Lord hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness," said Solomon, speaking of the Holy Place, at the time of the dedication of the temple (2 Chron. VI. 1); and indeed, it was in the same sanctuary that the manifestations often took place, the "cloud" showed itself there (2 Chron. V. 13, 14); and Zacharias there sees the angel who predicts to him the birth of his son (Luke I. 10 and following verses).

    Appreciating to the full the gift of mediumship, it was sought, then as now, to cultivate it; only what is done today in a small way among spiritualists, was then done on a large scale; there were in Judea several schools for prophets, some predicting the future, others speaking to the people by inspiration to increase their religious zeal and exhort them to lead a moral life.

    As for the phenomena themselves, even a cursory examination of the Bible stories will show us that they were of the same nature as those seen today.

    Let us pass then rapidly in review, beginning with those which, having been in our day the first to call attention to the invisible world, are still regarded by certain superficial or little-informed observers, as representing spiritualism itself; we refer to the movement of objects without contact.

    The Bible (2 Kings VI. 6), tells us that Elisha, by throwing in a piece of wood, caused an axehead to return to the surface of the water, and float.

    As for levitation, this same Elisha, transported to the exiles near the river of Kedar (Ez. III. 14, 15), and Philip who disappeared suddenly from the eyes of the Ethiopian and was found at Azotus (Acts VIII. 39, 40) are remarkable instances.

    We may cite, as a mediumistic writing, the Tables of the Law (Exodus XXXII> 15, 16). All the circumstances under which these tables were obtained proved super abundantly the intervention of the invisible world.

    No less convincing is the inscription traced by a materialized hand, on the wall of the palace during a feast given by king Belshazzar (Daniel V.).

    All the luminous phenomena observed today have also their parallels in the Bible, from the simple shining of the skin of Moses' face (Ex. XXXIV. 29, 30), or Christ at the Transfiguration, and the production of lights (Acts II. 3, and IX. 3,4), up to the complete apparitions which are innumerable in the Bible. (See, among others, in the second Book of the Maccabees, the apparition of the prophet Jeremiah and of the high priest Onias to Judas Maccabees.)

    The magnetic cures are without number. Sometimes the fluidic action is sustained by prayer and faith, as in the case of Jairus' daughter, sometimes the magnetic fluid acts alone, the operator being unconscious of it (Mark V. 25-34); or again the cure is effected by the laying on of hands, or by means of magnetized objects (Acts XIX. 11, 12).

    Mediumship by means of a glass of water, a present day occurrence, is found in these ancient narratives. What indeed, was the cup which Joseph used (Gen. XLIV. 5), and by "which he divined," if not the common glass of water or the crystal ball, or any other object presenting a polished surface, wherein present day mediums see pictures form themselves which are visible to them alone.

    In the Bible, we find many cases of clairvoyance, comprising as today, dreams, intuitions, presentiments, etc., all forms of mediumship, which have at all times been very numerous, and which are constantly occurring under our eyes today (2 Kings VI. 8-12).

    We must mention inspiration, that influx of lofty thoughts which comes to us from the beyond and gives to our words something superhuman. The men of Judea, those ardent-souled prophets, felt the benefits thereof, and it is due to this gift, this breath which animated their discourses, that the old Hebrew Bible has been so long considered a divine revelation.

    The numerous blemishes, which show glaringly to the impartial observer, the weakness, the childishness of the advice, and the information demanded of God (Gen. XXV. 22, 1 Sam. IX. 6, 2 Kings I. 1-4, 1 Sam. XXX. 3-8) are all overlooked, whereas we would be rightly blamed for introducing such subjects in a spiritualistic group.

    The cruelties approved, nay, even ordered by Jehovah, are forgotten, as well as the indecent details, in fact all that which in this book revolts us, or deserves our blame; and we remember only the moral beauties which it contains, and especially the expression of a living and passionate faith which awaits the reign of justice, if not for the present generation, who live only on hope, at least for those to come.

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Note # 8

ON THE MEANING ATTRIBUTED TO THE WORDS GODS AND DEMONS

   
    All  antiquity admitted the existence of Gods, by which were meant pure and high spirits, and of demi-gods or heroes, and also spirits in general, which were called demons or genii.

    The Christians themselves made use of these terms. St Paul says (1 Cor. VIII. 5,6): "For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things."

    In his commentaries on St John (Book II. No. 2) Origen says: "The eternal God has a right to more worship. He alone has a right to true adoration and not those other gods who live with Him and are His ministers and His subordinates, He being their God and their Creator."

    St Augustine says: (De civitate Dei. 1, VIII. C. XXIV.) "The demons (bad spirits) cannot be the friends of the gods full of loving kindness whom we call the holy angels."

     St Justinius, in his "Discourse to the Greeks" No. 5, says: "By following the faith we may become gods; and St Irinius (Contra haeresies 1, IV. C. XXXVIII.) "We are as yet only men, but one day we shall be gods."

    The same St Justinius (Apologetica I. 18, edition of the Benedictines of 1742, page 54) writes thus on the subject of the  manifestations of the dead: "Necromancy, the evocations of human souls... will prove to us that even after death, souls are gifted with sentiment; those who are possessed by the spirits of the dead are called by all demoniacs and furious (et qui ab animabus mortuorum correpti projiciuntur, doemoniaci et furioci ab omnibus appellati)."

    This is how, in the seventeenth century, P. Fondet, approved by the most eminent ecclesiastical doctors of the Sorbonne, translated, or rather, perverted the sense of this passage: "and these poor unfortunates who are seized by the spirits of the dead, thrown to the ground and tormented as you know, in many manners, and who are usually called furious demoniacs, and agitated by the demons." It is true that in his preface the translator took care to warn his readers that, in St Justinius' writings, "there were to be found many passages which were rather obscure, particularly those touching the demons, about whom the author wrote according to the opinions of his times, which ceased to be those of the Churches, and which would now only bewilder the faithful. There will even appear in this apology some slight traces thereof, which we have carefully softened as much as it was possible, without injuring the veracity of the version? (P. Fondet, "Second Apology of St Justinius," p. 48, and preface, published by savreux, Paris 1670.) We also refer our readers to Tertullian - "Apologetic," chap. XXIII.

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Note # 9

ON THE PERISPIRIT OR SPIRITUAL AND SUBTLE BODY;
THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH


    To the quotations contained in our study on the resurrection of the dead, chap. VIII., we add several opinions of the Fathers of the Church.

    Tertullian declares that the materialization of the soul is affirmed in the Gospels: Corporalitas animae in ipso Evangelio relucescit," for, he adds, "if the soul has no body, the image of the soul would not have the image of the body." ("Treatise de Anima," chaps. VII., VIII. and IX., edition of 1657, p. 8.)

    St Basil speaks of the spiritual body in the same terms as Tertullian. In his treatise on the Holy Spirit, he states that the angels render themselves visible by their own bodies, when they appear to those who are worthy. (St Basil. "Liber Spiritu Sancto," C. XVI., edition of 1730, vol. III., p. 32.)

    This doctrine is also held by St Gregory, by St Cyril of Alexandria, and by St Ambrose. The latter expresses himself thus: "Let us not imagine that any being is exempt from matter in his composition, with the single exception of the Holy Trinity" (Abraham, Book II. 58).

    St Cyril of Jerusalem writes thus: "The name spirit is a generic and common name; all that has not a dense and heavy body, is, in a general fashion, called spirit" (Catechesis," XVI. pp. 251, 252).

    In other passages, St Cyril attributes to the angels, to the demons, to the souls of the dead, bodies more subtle than the earthly body.

    Evodius, bishop of Uzale, writes in 414 to St Augustine to question him on the nature and cause of apparitions, of which he gives him several examples, and asks him if, after death: "When the soul has quited this gross and earthly body, its incorporeal substance remains united to some other body, not composed of the four elements, as this one is, but more, subtle, composed of the elements of air or of ether?:

    He thus terminates his letter: "I believe that the soul cannot be without a body of some sort." ("Works of St Augustine," vol. II.) See also the letter of St Augustine to Nebride, written about 390, where he expresses himself thus: "It is needful that thou shouldst remember that we have often, in discussions which left us heated and out of breath, treated the question as to whether the soul has not a dwelling in some kind of body, or in something analogous to a body, which some, as thou knowest, cal its' vehicle." ("St Augustine," Op Cit. vol. II., letter 14.)

    St Bernard says: "We attribute then in all assurance, to God alone the true incorporability, as well as the true corporeal nature, so that He needs the help of nobody to execute any work, since His spiritual will alone permits Him to do all things." (Sermo VI. in Cantica, vol. I., col. 1277.)

    Finally, St John of Thessalonica sums up the question in these terms in his declaration to the second Council of Nicea (787) which adopted his views. "As to the angels, the archangels, and the powers, and, I must also add, the souls, the Church decides that these beings are in reality spiritual, but not completely deprived of bodies, but on the contrary, gifted with a tenuous, aerial or igneous body. We know that this is the opinion of many of the holy Fathers, among them, of Basil, surnamed the Great, of the holy Athanasius, and of Methodius, and those who were with them. God alone is incorporeal and without form. As to the spiritual creatures, they are by no means incorporeal." ("Histoire Universelle de l'Eglise Catholique," par l"Abbé, Rohrbacker, Doctor of Theology, vol. XI. pp. 109, 210.)

    We have quoted these various opinions, because they are so many statements in favor of the existence of the perispirit, which is in reality nothing  but the subtle body, the inseparable and indestructible envelope of the soul, which has been divined by the ecclesiastical authorities of all ages.

    These statements are confirmed by the testimony of modern science. The successive inquiries of the Society of Psychical Research of London, have established 1600 cases of apparitions of "phantoms" of the living and the dead. 8 The existence of the perispirit is also proved by the numerous mouldings of fluidic hands and faces; by the materializations of spirits obtained by Sir W. Crookes, Sir Russel Wallace, Aksakof, etc.; by the visions of mediums and somnambulists; by the photographs of the spirits of the dead; in a word by the whole imposing array of duly verified facts. 9

    Certain Catholic writers purposely confound the action of the perispirit and its manifestation after separation from the human body, with the idea of the "resurrection of the flesh." We have already drawn attention to the fact that this expression is very seldom found in the Scriptures. We find rather the "resurrection of the dead." (See for example, Paul, in 1 Cor. XV. 21.)

    The resurrection of the flesh is rendered impossible by the fact that the molecules composing our present bodies have belonged in the pasto to thousands of other human bodies, as they will belong in the future to other thousands of bodies. At the day of judgment, which one of all these could prove his right to these wandering molecules?

    Resurrection is a spiritual fact, which spiritualism alone can render comprehensible. To explain it, Catholics are obliged to have recourse to miracles, that is, to the violation by God of the natural laws by Him established. How, without the existence of the perispirit, without the double corporalilty of man, can one explain the numerous cases of bilocation related in the annals of Catholicism.

    Alphonse de Liguori was canonized because he was seen simultaneously in two different places.

    St Anthony defends his father from an accusation of murder before the tribunal of Padua, and denounces the real culprit, at the same moment when he is preaching in Spain before a large number of the faithful.

    St Francis Xavier shows himself several times, at the same hour, in places far removed from each other.

    Is it possible to explain these facts, testified to by great numbers of witnesses, in any other way than by the disembodying of the human being and the action at a distance of his fluidic envelope?

    It is thus in the numerous cases of apparitions of the dead, mentioned in the Scriptures. They are only to be explained by the existence of a form similar to that possessed by the spirit when on earth, but more subtle and tenuous, surviving the destruction of the earthly body. Without a perispirit, without a form, how could the spirit be recognized by men: How could they recognize each other in space?

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Note # 10

GALILEO AND THE CONGREGATION OF THE INDEX

   
    Here is an extract from the text of the condemnation of Galileo in 1615; photographed in the Archives of the Vatican by an ardent Catholic, Comte Henri de l'Epinois:

    "Thou hast been denounced in 1615 to the Sacred Office:

    "Because thou hast sustained as true a false doctrine spread by many, namely that 'the Sun is motionless in the centre of the world and that the earth has a daily movement'; because thou teachest this doctrine to thy disciples; because thou hast kept up a correspondence on this subject with the mathematicians of Germany; because thou hast published letters about the solar spots, in which thou didst present this doctrine as true; because to the objections made to thee thou didst answer by explaining the Holy Scriptures according to thine own idea...

    "The tribunal has wished to prevent the inconveniences and dangers derived therefrom, which are becoming aggravated to the detriment of the faith.

    "By the order of the Pope and the Cardinals, the theologians charged with this mission have thus qualified thy two propositions. First, 'The sun is the centre of the world and does not move.' An absurd proposition, false in philosophy, and heretical as to its expression, for it is contrary to the Holy Scriptures. Second, 'The earth is not the centre of the world, it is not immovable, but has a daily movement.'

    "Proposition equally absurd and false in philosophy, and, considered from a theological point of view, erroneous as to the faith. ... We declare that thou hast rendered thyself strongly suspected of heresy; Because thou hast believed and upheld a doctrine false and contrary to the holy and divine Scriptures, namely: that the sun is the centre of the universe and does not move from east to west; that the earth moves and is not the centre of the world.

    "Because thou hast thought that thou couldst support, as probable, an opinion which has been declared contrary to the Holy Scriptures.

    "In consequence, we declare that thou hast incurred all the censures and pains decreed by the sacred canons and other general and particular constitutions against those who disobey the statutes and other decrees promulgated.

    "From such censures it pleases us to absolve thee provided that, firstly, thou shalt, from a sincere heart and with a true faith, abjure before us, curse and detest, according to the formula which we will present to thee, the said errors and heresies, and all other error or heresy contrary to the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church. And, that thy grave and pernicious error and thy disobedience may not remain unpunished, so that in the future thou shouldst be more reserved and that thou shouldst serve as an example to others that they may avoid these sins: We declare, by public edict, that the book of "Diologues," by Galileo, is prohibited.

    "We condemn thee to the ordinary prison of this Holy Office for a length of time to be set at our pleasure. As a salutary penance, we order thee to recite, during three years, once a week, the seven penitential psalms.

    "We reserve to ourselves the power to moderate, to change, or to remit all or part of the pains and penances aforesaid."

    A theologian dictated the following lines, five years ago, to Mr Henry Lasserre, which the author of "Notre Dame de Lourdes," and the "Traduction nouvelle des Evangiles" (this last work also placed on the Index) repeats in his "Memoires a La Sainteté": -

    "This decree which anathematized the admirable discovery of the great astronomer and which punished him by imprisonment, was a double and complete error.

    "It was an incidental and secondary error in astronomy, but it was, above all, a principal error in doctrine. Remarkably enough the Sacred Congregation has condemned itself by every word of the decree.

    "By condemning as absurd, that is to say contrary to reason, that which is reasonable, it has convicted itself of being without reason and opposed to reason.

    "By condemning as false, that is, contrary to the truth, that which is true, it has convicted itself of being without truth and opposed to truth.

    "By condemning as heresy, that is, contrary to orthodoxy, that which is a divine law of the visible universe, it has convicted itself of being unorthodox and opposed to orthodoxy.

    "By condemning as contrary to the Scriptures a marvelous system of the Creator, the Sacred Congregation has convicted itself of being without the science of the Scriptures, and opposed to their true interpretation.

    "Every Roman, in private, in the intimacy of conversation, was not slow in confessing and in deploring the fault committed by these eminent judges.

    "Nevertheless, what is still more deplorable, is that in spite of the complaints and demands, in spite of the proofs and evidence, in spite of the orders of Benoit XIV, and the sentence of eradication pronounced by this Pope on May 10th, 1754, notwithstanding a second decree of the same nature, rendered by Pius VII on Sept. 25th, 1822, the repugnance of the Roman Congregation to confess itself in error or to submit to such a decree from the Pope, was so great, that during more than two centuries and in the face of a recognized truth, this tribunal maintained its decree on the Catalogue of the index librorum prohibitorum."

    The works containing the discoveries of Galileo and of Copernicus, condemned on August 23rd, 1634, as absurd, false, heretical and contrary to the holy and divine Scriptures, have only been removed from the Index in the edition of 1835. They remained forbidden for 201 years.
  
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Note # 11

  CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA; AND
PROOFS OF IDENTITY OF THE SPIRITS


    Thanks to experimental spiritualism, the problems of survival, the philosophical consequences of which are incalculable, have receive a definite solution. The soul has become objective, sometimes tangible; its existence has been revealed, after death, as during life, by manifestations of all kind.

    The physical phenomena offered at the beginning an insufficient basis for argument; but since then the facts have taken on an intelligent character, and become accentuated to such a degree that negation has become impossible.

    It is by positive proofs that the question of the existence of the soul and its immortality has been answered. The radiations of thought have been photographed; the spirit, clothed in its fluidic body, in its imperishable envelope, has appeared on the sensitive plate. Its existence has become as certain as that of the physical body.

    The identity of the spirits has been established times without number. We may quote a few instances.

    Rev. Stainton Moses (Oxon) professor of Oxford University, in his book on Spirit Identity, relates a case in which the table gave a long and circumstantial account of the death, the ages, even to the number of months, and the baptismal names (four for one and three for another) of three little children of the same family, who had died suddenly. "None of us had any knowledge of these uncommon names. They had died in India, and when the message was given us, we had no apparent means of verification." This revelation was nevertheless verified some time after and proved to be exact, by the testimony of the mother of these children, whose acquaintance Mr Stainton Moses made later on.

    The same author quotes the case of one Abraham Florentine, who died in the United States, a fact absolutely unknown to the experimenters and which was carefully verified afterwards.

    The story of Siegwart Lekebusch, a young tailor who was run over and killed by a train, proves again how contraty to the truth it is to assert that the personalities who manifest by the table are always known to those present. The reverse is constantly the case.

    According to "Animisme and Spiritisme," of Aksakof, the posthumous identity of the spirits is proved by: -

    1st. Communications from the spirit in its native tongue, which is unknown to the medium (p. 538), as in the cases of Miss Edmunds, Mr. Turner, of Miss Scougal and of Mrs Corvin, who talked with a spectator in the sign-language of the deaf-mutes, which was unknown to her.

    2nd. By communication from a spirit in its own characteristic style, or with expressions peculiar to it, received in the absence of any one who had known the deceased (page 543), the completion of a novel of Dickens, Edwin Drood, by an illiterate young workman, in such a manner that it is impossible to say at which point the original manuscript stops, and the work of the medium begins.

    See also the history of Louis XI, written by Mdlle Hermance Dufaux, at the age of fourteen. (Revue Spirite 1858.) This history, very detailed, contains information unpublished before.

    3rd. By communications delivered by a spirit unknown to the medium, in the handwriting of its life-time (page 345). Letter of Mrs Livermore, written by herself after her death. This spirit established her identity by showing herself, by writing and by conversing as during her life. The spirit even wrote in French, which language was quite unknown to the medium, Kate Fox. Also the case where Stainton Moses obtained a signature from a spirit, which signature was recognized by a banker (see La Realit
é des Esprits," by Baron Guldenstubbe).

    Also direct writing (not through the hand of a medium) of a relative of the author, and recognized by him as being identical with the handwriting during life. (These same proofs have been obtained many times in our own circle of experiments.)

    4th. By communications coming from one deceased, containing a collection of details concerning his earthly life, and received in the absence of anyone who had known the deceased (see page 436).

    Through the mediumship of Mrs. Conant, several thousand spirits unknown to the medium have been identified as persons having lived in other countries (page 559 and following). The cases of the old Chamberlain, of Violet, and Robert Dale Owen, etc.

    5th. By communication from one deceased, of facts known during his life to him only, and that he only could communicate (see page 466). The case of the son of Mr. Davy, poisoned and robbed at sea, a statement which was afterwards found to be true. The discovery of the will of Baron Korff; the spirit of Jack, which states (as proved correctly) the amounts owing to him, what he owed, etc., etc.

    6th. Bu communications which are not spontaneous, like the preceding, but provoked by direct appeal to the deceased, and received in the absence of any one who had known the deceased (see page 585). Answers given by the spirits to sealed letters (medium Mansfield). Direct writing giving the answer to a question unknown to the medium, Mr Watkins.

    7th. By communications received in the absence of all persons who had known deceased, which betray certain psychic conditions or provoke physical sensations peculiar to him (p. 597). The spirit of a mad woman, still troubled in space. The case of Mr Elias Pond, of Woonsoket, etc.

    8th. By the apparition of the earthly form of deceased (page 605). (These phenomena have occurred many times in the s
éances directed by us.)

    Gabriel Delanne, in the Revue scientifique et morale du Spiritism, expresses himself thus: -

    "The literature of spiritualism contains millions of similar facts, carefully observed by reliable witnesses, whose testimony is above suspicion. We have then the scientific proof that the individual principle is independent of the body, that it has its own separate existence, that it survives the disintegration of the body, and that, moreover, it preserves enough of the elements of its personality to prove the great fact of survival."

    It is also possible, experimentally and irrefutably, to prove that the "I," the ego, has an objective form, which can come within ken of the senses under certain conditions, for example: -

    (A) By the apparition of one deceased, seen by the mental vision of the medium, with or without the presence of persons having known him (Aksakof, p. 605 and following) see also Annales des Sciences psychique, March-April 1897, the story of John the carrier.

    The case of General Drayton, to whom a medium described a friend whom he believed to be living; the dead man relating to him the extraordinary circumstances which had accompanied his death. The vision of Mme. Aksakof of the daughter of countess Tolstoi.

    (B) Case in which the presence of the deceased is attested by the mental vision of the medium, and at the same time, by photography, in the absence of all persons who had known deceased.

    The experiments of Mr Beattie, when the medium, in trance, gave a description of the luminous forms which appeared to his mental vision. The testimony of Stainton Moses; the vision and the photograph of the spirit of little Pauline. The recognition by Mrs Moses A. Dow, of the portrait of her deceased friend. The attestation of Dr Russel Wallace, relative to the case of Mr Blond.

    We will also quote the case of the portrait of Mrs Bonner which appeared on the photograph of Mr Bronson Murray, who did not know the lady. Also the portrait of the mother of Dr G. Thomson, who had died at his birth. Forty-four years had elapsed between her death and the taking of the photograph.

    (C) Apparition of the earthly form of one deceased, by means of materialization, and accompanied by intellectual proofs.

    Sometimes the spirits have made use of natural deformities of their material bodies to cause themselves to be more easily recognized after their death, by reproducing these deformities in materializations. Once it is two fingers bent in towards the palm, in consequence of a burn, again the index finger is bent at the second joint, etc.

    The report of Mr Scherman on the materialization of an Indian, which recalled to him an episode of his life. Also the case of Estelle, the wife of Mr. Livermore, already mentioned by Aksakof. (Page 408).


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Note # 12

ON TELEPATHY

   
    The Society of Psychical Research, of London, has instituted inquiries into many instances of the phenomena of telepathy, of apparitions, and other manifestations of the same order. The first of these inquiries brought to light 800 cases of apparitions, related in the work of Messrs Myers, Podmore and Gurney, entitled "Phantasms of the Living." A second and more recent investigation revealed 1652 cases. All these facts, with others still more recent, have been collected and published in several volumes of the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research." The accounts and other documents composing them have been signed by men of science, occupying prominent positions in learned societies and bodies; astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, chemists, etc.

     Among the signatures we find those of Gladstone and Balfour, etc. These apparitions almost always occurred at the moment of death, or after the death of the person whose image appeared. There are also cases in which a living man has appeared to another without being aware of it. The attempt has been made to attribute to these phenomena a purely subjective character, and to explain them by hallucination; but it is proved by a careful examination of the reports that these facts are objective and real, for they not only impress human beings, but it has been observed from their coincident attacks of sudden fright or panic, that animals also see them.

    In certain cases, the same apparition has been seen successively on different floors of the house by different people. At other times, they are accompanied by physical manifestations, by noises, by violent and echoing blows, voices are heard, doors are opened, and objects are displaced by the phantoms.

    Professor Myers, of Cambridge, author of the work quoted above, hesitated long before admitting the existence of spirits, but, before the impossibility of finding elesewhere an intelligent cause for these phenomena, he came to  the following conclusion; (Annales des Sciences psychiques. August 1892, p. 246). "The spiritualistic method is in itself legitimate, necessary and true." 10

    These investigations, carried on in England and published with the testimony of persons whose good faith is above question, are now being carried on also in France by Doctor Dariex, Professor Richet of the Academy of Paris, and Colonel de Rochas, head of the Polytechnic of France. The results, very remarkable, and identical with those obtained on the other side of the Channel, are published in the Annales des Sciences psychiques, above mentioned.

    Aksakof, in his work "Animisme and Spiritisme," 11 also mentioned interesting cases of double presence of living people. We find, among others, that of Melle Emilie Sagée, a French teacher, who was discharged for this reason, from seventeen educational establishments. This phenomenon showed itself sometimes in the presence of her pupils, and produced a panic among them.

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Note # 13

  ON SUGGESTION OR THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE

    Concerning the theories of telepathy, transmission of thought, or suggestion, Mrs Britten, a well-known English spiritualistic writer, quotes a decisive experiment of Robert Hare's, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, which has often been told, but which she repeats as having been related to her by the Professor himself. Professor Hare was experimenting, like so many others, with the sole object of unmasking what he had decided a priori to be an abominable fraud. After researches pursued during many months, he came to the conclusion that the phenomena proved the existence of a force hitherto unknown, but that the information received came from all the intelligences present, in other words, through thought-transference, which has, in our day, been presented as a new discovery, and called telepathy.

     To check-mate this force, the professor invented a sort of rapping dial, whose movements could be influenced by mediums for physical effects, while a needle, moved by mediumistic power, indicated the letters of the alphabet which were placed at the opposite side of the table from the medium, so that it was absolutely impossible for the latter to direct the movements of the needle, or even to see or know the communications which were dictated. Thus the dial was influenced by the force of the medium, without his being able to follow the word spelled, and the spectators also were rendered quite incapable of directing in any way the force which moved the dial.

    It was during a series of experiments carried on in this manner that the spirit of a little boy who said he was the eldest born of the Professor (a child who had died at the age of two years) constantly came and communicated.

    Although he stated that he had become a man, he always referred to himself as "little Tarley," giving his name of Charley in baby fashion, as a proof of his identity.

    One day when the dial was working well under the hand of a powerful medium, the professor said: "Well, little Tarley, if you are really there and since you seem to know so much, tell me what I have in a package in this pocket of my coat?"

    "You have there, father," spelled out the spirit, "a little bit of a faded yellow lace veil, which was taken from off my face when I was laid in my little coffin."

    "Little Tarley," replied the professor, mockingly, "I perceive that you are not very wise, for I have nothing of the kind in my pocket." Then, turning towards those who formed the circle, he said gravely: "You see, my friends, the value of these pretended spirit-communications, when there is no brain in which they can read. It is a little shoe I have in my pocket; I took it off the dead foot of my child before the coffin was closed and have kept it carefully in a drawer during a quarter of a century, in memory of my firstborn, with his little toys and other souvenirs of my dear departed; let us admit that this spirit is making fun of us."

    Saying these words, he took from his coat a package and unfolded one after the other a certain number of old pieces of yellow paper; he finally came to the last one which contained ... a piece of yellow lace veil; on the envelope the dead mother had written that she had taken if off the face of her little dead child!

    The professor had been in error, but the spirit had made no mistake.


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THE END


NOTE TO PAGE 250

    The law of reincarnation is not only proved by reason, but also by facts. The experiments in Spain on the "retrogression of memory," brought to the notice of the International Spiritualistic Congress of 1900 (Paris) show that in subjects in a profound magnetic sleep, the sleep stratas of memory which which are out of reach in the waking state, may be revealed. The subject remembers his youth and infancy, even to the smallest details (which are in many cases completely verified afterwards), and as the magnetic sleep becomes deeper and deeper, his memory recedes still further and he is enabled to recall his last incarnation, and then the preceding one, thus going back through several incarnations. In so doing he takes on the different characteristics of the personalities which he possessed, and can even give e the names of familiar people and places, which have in several instances been proved to be correct.

    To bring him back to the present, the sleep must be gradually lightened, and he returns stage by stage, over the way he has been sent, until he awakes.

    Quite recently, Colonel de Rochas published his experiments with two mediums, Josephine and Eug
énie, both women in excellent health, and of good character. With Josephine especially he was successful in reconstituting quite a number of very diverse previous existences on this earth. She gave names, places of birth, and complete and minute histories of each life, some of them not at all to her credit. The little out of the way villages mentioned by her, Col. de Rochas was able later on to locate, and also to find traces of some of the families to which she had claimed to belong.

    (See the "Comte rendu du Congr
és Spiritualiste de Paris," 1900, pp. 349, 350. Also, for the experiments of Col. de Rochas, see the "Revue Scientifique et Morale du Spiritisme," July and August 1904.


¹
Fl. Josephus, "War of the Jews against the Romans."

²
"Encyclopedie des Sciences Religieuses."

³
"Les Bibles et les Initiateurs religieux de l'humanité." Par Leblois, pasteur à Strasbourg.

4
 The law of reincarnation is not only proved by reason, but also by facts. The experiments in Spain on the "retrogression of memory," brought to the notice of the        International Spiritualistic Congress of 1900 (Paris) show that in subjects in a profound magnetic sleep, the sleep stratas of memor which are out of reach in the waking state, may be revealed. The subject remembers his youth and infancy, even to the smallest details (which are in many cases completely verified afterwards), and as the magnetic sleep becomes deeper, his memory recedes still further and he is enabled to recall his last incarnation, and them the preceding one, thus going back through several incarnations. In so doing he takes on teh different characteristics of the personalities which he possessed, and can even give the names of familiar people and places, which have in several instances bee proved to be correct.
    To bring him back to the present, the sleep must be gradually lightened, and he returns stage by stage, over the way he has been sent, until he awakes.
    Quite recently, Colonel de Rochas published his experiments with two mediuns, Josephine and Eugénie, both women in excellent health, and of good character. With Josephine especially he was successful in reconstituting quite a number of very diverse previous existences on this earth. She gave names, places of birth, and complete minute histories of each life, some of them not at all to her credit. The little out of the way villages mentioned by her, Col. de Rochas was able later on to locate, and also to find traces of some of the families to which she had claimed to belong.
    (See the "Compte rendu du Congrés Spiritualiste de Paris," 1900, pp. 349, 350. Also, for the experiments of Col. de Rochas, see the "Revue Scientifique et Morale du Spiritism," July and August 1904.


5 See 1 Samuel XXVIII. 6.

"Light," 110 St Martin's Lane, London.

   
7  See "Après la Mort," p. 81, by same author.


8  This was several years ago; many more have been recorded since then.

9   See note No. 11.

10 See also Prof. Myers' great work "Human personality and its survival after death." (Translator's note.)

11 Page 604 of the German edition.